Value for Money: Buck's fizz

This week Value for Money reviews four options for buck's fizz

Harvest Cellars from Aldi

€2.79 for 750ml, €3.72 per litre

Let’s be honest, there is nothing in the world that says “party!” like Aldi’s Buck’s Fizz . . . um, okay, perhaps not. This is not the height of indulgence by any stretch of the imagination, but at just €2.79 and with a pleasingly loud pop, it is ridiculously cheap. While it might be stretching it a bit to say the bottle looks classy, it does look surprisingly upmarket, given what is contained within. And compared with most of the competition, it is absolutely fine.

It tastes like a soft drink and the bottle we tried did lose its fizz very fast. It does not compare favourably with the home-made product but is a quarter of the price and mildly festive.

Verdict: Cheap and cheerful

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Marks & Spencer

€4.29 for 750ml, €5.72 per litre

The orange juice in this “light refreshing cocktail” actually tastes surprisingly, um, refreshing. While the whole package is not a whole lot different to the Aldi product, it might be just a little juicier. It is made with 52 per cent carbonated white wine which, while hardly a fine vintage, doesn’t taste half bad. It does lose its bubbles faster than you can say “Is it the 1970s again?” but it is very easy to down quickly. With just three units of alcohol per bottle, you could probably drink more of it than you intended without getting yourself into too much trouble. While it is cheaper than our homegrown option, it is a fair bit more expensive than the Aldi competition and not really that much nicer.

Verdict: Oddly fresh

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Tesco Premium

€5.79 for 750ml, €7.72 per litre

This tastes virtually indistinguishable from any fizzy orange drink we have ever tasted and we struggled to work out what made it “premium”. It is four per cent proof – the same strength as the M&S option so you will be able to lorry loads of it into you on Christmas morning and still be able to cook – or indeed just eat – the turkey. It is probably the most widely available of the store-bought options. It has a strong orangey kick at the outset but that flavour fades pretty fast and it becomes quite watery. It looks pale and anaemic although tastes better than that and the more we drank it, the more we liked it.

It is pretty pricey, mind you.

Verdict: Too pricey

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The DIY Deal

€10.85 for 1.5 litres, €7.21 per litre

We bought a litre of Tropicana juice which cost €2.44 and a bottle of Tesco own-brand cava for €8.99. We got 1.5 litres of our fruity cocktail – with a split of 50/50 for the juice and cava – for €10.82, or €7.21 per litre. This makes it cheaper than the Tesco Premium product and a million times better than all of them. It keeps bubbling for a lot longer, looks a whole lot posher and tastes a whole lot more like something you’d actually want to drink of a Christmas morning than any of the competition. It is, we think, a little stronger than the more artificial options available to us so the potential for a pre-dinner hangover is very real.

Verdict: Ho ho ho

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